Master Edward arriving home from school, made an announcement that astonished me, and furnished a new task. I ought to have remembered that a boy leaves the County Council schools when he reaches the age of fourteen, but I had so much to think of that the fact escaped my notice; Mrs. Hillier, on hearing this excuse, said it seemed to her my intelligence was decaying. Miss Muriel had been invited to pay a visit to friends at Chislehurst, and I was relieved from the task of looking after her: Mr. Hillier was making a good recovery, and I hoped my scheme in regard to him might be successful; the shop in London Street was in the hands of a firm of decorators who had promised to be out of it within seven days, from the start, and had already been pottering about there for three weeks. And here came Master Edward thrown back from school upon my hands; it appeared to be understood at Gloucester Place that it was for me to arrange the launching of him into business life.
"What would you like to be?" I asked, sharply.
"Really don't know, Weston," he answered.
"But haven't you any bent, or inclination, or——"
"I fancy the pater's notion was that I should go in for the law."
"You'll have to do something useful," I declared. "Something that will bring in a few shillings a week, without delay."
"Most chaps have a holiday when they leave school."
"Not in these war times. Just now, the country wants everybody to work. Don't let me hear any nonsense talk of that nature."
"Wish I were old enough to do as John did, and join the army."